Milngavie Early Years Centre

This morning Valerie put clay out at the malleable table.  Clay is a great material for strengthening the hand muscles and developing fine motor skills.  It also has a great texture which you can change by adding water.  The children had great fun working the clay and making models which they are going to dry and paint.  Another great thing about clay is that it is extra-messy.  We love it!

  Our pre-scho0l/P1 Pirate Adventure continues tomorrow with our first day in the garden.  The forecast is not great – light rain at the last check!  Our pre-schoolers can wear nursery suits to keep dry but P1 will need waterproofs.  The children will not mind the rain and we will have good fun whatever the weather- though it might be a bit of a challenge to get the campfire lit! We’ll let you know how we get on!!!

Many thanks to Kathryn Booth and Katerina McKay for giving us loads of great ideas for healthier snacks at the Parents’ Focus Group last Thursday.  They had a wealth of suggestions for things we might try and Katerina, who is a nutritionist told us what to watch out for and avoid when buying food for the nursery.  Kathryn reminded us about pop corn, which we used to do but haven’t done for ages- we are going to dust off the popcorn making machine and see which herb or dried garlic toppings the children prefer.  Lynn has been on snack for the past 3 weeks.  As a very fit and healthy person herself, she always likes to provide a really healthy option whenever possible.  Today’s snack was delicious melon, cherry tomatoes and cucumber with organic houmous and breadsticks, washed down with semi-skimmed milk or Milngavie tap water. Yum.

Amelia painted this amazing pirate ship and even put P1 on it to show that we are setting sail for Primary 1! Isn’t it fab?

If your child is going to Primary 1 in August, we would be very grateful if you would give us your comments on the way we handle transition from Nursery to School.  On our Nursery rhyme board we have a lovely Pirate ship.  If you would like to write your comments on a pale blue wave, we can make a sea for our boat to sail on, and make sure our transition arrangements work for parents and children.

Humpty Dumpty’s bricks had some great suggestions and comments – we will be following these up this month and will show you how we have responded to what you have said.

This morning, on the way back from gym our children had an opportunity to play in the infant playground.  They really enjoyed the experience and we intend to take our pre-schoolers down at playtime to meet the playground helpers and play with the school children, in preparation for their big move in August.

  This was the scene at our mud kitchen this afternoon.  Lots of busy wee people chatting to each other as they cooked up some delicious looking mud.  There is great emphasis put on outdoor learning by the government and by leading educationalists just now.  The notion that young children learn best through play in a stimulating environment is one that we completely believe in at  Milngavie Nursery.  We are lucky enough to share the school garden and play in it on a daily basis with our children.  It provides a beautiful environment in which to learn.  It is ideal for imaginative play- we have a willow den, a play hut and 2 wee play houses, as well as little areas of the garden where we can hide, or get together with our friends to work together, or just chat.  There are trees to climb and 2 great slides, which provide a bit of challenge for those who like to be active.  We also have a great board walk which we can run down, or roll things down, and plenty of benches and seats for those who want to do a bit of drawing, make a picture or read a story.

Every area of the curriculum can be explored in the garden and often in more meaningful and physical ways than in our playrooms.  The quality of play is better out of doors.  The fresh air and exercise and the freedom to run and to make a noise are so good for wee people.  Their spatial awareness and physical confidence is improved by the freedom to move, to climb, to balance, jump and slide.  It is much more likely that children will be interested in the world around them if they are actually out in it, experiencing it.  A book with a lovely picture of a frog will never be the same as watching one up close and listening to the noise it makes.  Emotionally too, the garden is a good place for children.  Most children enjoy the space and it is always more difficult to get them back inside than get them out!

The chat in the garden can be amazing – this morning I watched one of our wee boys holding his own yoga class.  He had obviously watched someone doing yoga very carefully and knew some great yoga positions.  The other children were really interested in what he was doing and he soon had a wee crowd trying out the lotus position and yoga “moves”.  He spiced it up with some karate chops at the end, that perhaps weren’t strictly in the spirit of the first part of his class, but his friends loved it.  There was lots of great use of descriptive language and serious faces and concentration and then lots of smiling and laughing.  Watching children learn from one another is a joy.

Later I saw two three year olds making a cup of tea and having a natter like little old ladies – practising the skills adults use every day.  They had observed adult relationships and were trying them out themselves – learning together how conversations and friendships work. “I’ll be the mum- now just you don’t touch that – it’s hot!”

It might be messy and you do get dirty, but nothing beats outdoors!

 This morning we tried a new type of collage -garden art.  First of all we had to forage for exciting things to put on our pictures.  The garden is full of interesting leaves, stones, sticks and flowers.  We then used scissors, glue and sticky tape to create some exciting new pictures.  Some children chose to collaborate and work on the same piece together, and others preferred to work on their own.  “Look mine’s even got a wee beastie on it!” said Struan.  Luckily – we managed to blow the beastie off the paper before it trod in the glue and was set forever in a pool of pva glue.  Working with natural materials provides a great sensory experience.  We used 4 of our 5 senses -we were far too sensible to put any of the things we had found in our mouths to taste them!

  Last week Sam started making a very hungry caterpillar book.  He took great care with his writing, and his drawing on every page was excellent.  He spent ages making it, and was justifiably very proud of his good work.  He wanted to take it home today, but Julie really wanted to put it into his learning journey – it was just so special.  Sam’s mum persuaded to leave it for his learning journey and allowed us to put his picture on the blog to show his dad and brothers his amazing work.  Well done Sam!

This week in Nursery we are talking to our pre-school children about their up-coming graduations and thinking about what we might wear, what we do and why we have them in the first place.

Tuesday is gym day for the Red, Yellow and Green groups and for our pm children.

On Wednesday we are sailing the seven seas of the garden with Primary 1 – taking part in some amazing learning adventures and making new friends.  Campfire, Pirate storytelling, building shelters and number fishing are on the agenda! Ahar!

On Friday we have an amazing morning planned- Anne Madsen has kindly offered to do a workshop on the amazing things you can do with water.  It is great fun and very wet indeed.  Please could you send a change of clothes for your child as it is very likely they might need them.  We will put suits on, but there is a good chance they will get a bit soggy!

This week we are also planning to investigate floating and sinking further in our water area.  We are still looking at wind direction and wind power outdoors and the caterpillar study continues.  Angela has been helping children to make their very own hungry caterpillar books in the writing area.  It’s going to be a very busy week. Fingers crossed for sunshine.

Finn and Murray are both big fans of Halloween.  They love dressing up and anything just a bit spooky.  This morning Finn brought in two very healthy looking seedlings.  “They’re Pumpkin plants!” he told us.  We weren’t sure what to do with them so we did some research (i.e. asked Elisabeth!) and found out that we need to grow them  inside for another month before we plant  them out.  Murray and Finn got them ready for re-potting and had a look at the roots- they looked like little white worms.  Murray knew about roots- “The plant uses them to get food to grow,” he said.  After they were planted into nice big pots we tied the stems to a stake to keep them straight.  “If they grow really big we can make pumpkin lanterns!” said Finn.